Local Protection of Natural Resources after JAM Golf: Standards and Standard of Review

Abstract

Municipalities have two main concerns after the JAM Golf decision. First, towns wonder whether their municipal standards will be struck down in court for being too vague. Second, towns worry about a loss of local control as decisions about the towns are made by courts without local input. This paper discusses opportunities to address both of these concerns.First, this paper considers opportunities for towns to reduce vagueness in their municipal standards by improving specificity in town plans, zoning ordinances, and during the application process for PRDs and subdivisions. Second, on-the-record review (OTR) is considered as an opportunity for towns to preserve local input during the appeals process.